The faculty opponent was Tariq Jazeel, Reader at the Dept. of Geography, University College London (UCL), United Kingdom. Sircar has been supervised at the department by Prof. Agnes Andersson Djurfeldt.
Abstract: In the 2011 census of India, more than 2500 settlements have been newly inducted into the category of ‘census towns’ – the lowest size-class of urban settlements in India. This is a staggering figure in light of the observation that a comparable number constituted the total number of all urban settlements recorded since 1900. Furthermore, it has been revealed through aerial images, that a vast majority of these new census towns are situated away from million-plus metropolitan areas and are parts of smaller settlement agglomerations. This geographical phenomenon of small-town based urbanization independent of state planning has been termed subaltern urbanization. The study was conducted in West Bengal - the state with the highest share of new census towns. The fieldwork was carried out in two towns in the south-western districts of West Medinipur (Garbeta town) and Bankura (Jhantipahari town).